Haza
Bluelighter
i fell asleep at work today and had the most vivid dream, it seemed so incredible, and i hate how i always forget my dreams so when i woke up i decided to make it into a story...this is all that ive dreamed the rest im going to make up to follow along with the story line...but keep in mind its only the ifrst draft so if it seems a lil messy, thats why, oh yeah its pretty long too heh, i hop you read it
It must have been about two years ago since I could remember anything at all. My first memory was waking in a church in the town I live in now. It’s a nice town and the people are very friendly and helpful. I stay with an older man now his name is Max; I live on the second floor of his house, which is only one room. I have a window that over looks a lake and off in the distance I can see hills with trees that stay green year round. I work in the bakery of this town as hired help, nothing too important, but I have grown a reputation in this town to make excellent lemon squares.
When I have free time I usually find myself sitting in my room and gazing at the hills and wondering. I wonder where I came from, I wonder who I am and I wonder what brought me here. I have tried to do some research about what I am but the town library is small and doesn’t concern itself much with the world outside of the town. The head priest said he found me lying at the foot of the church with a tiny incision in the back of my neck. When I asked him about it he bowed his head like he had bad news and said, “In the bible, it is said that the devil can steal the souls of the living, and that this was done by cutting a tiny hole in the back of their neck and sucking it out.” Though I didn’t take him seriously at first, I still had a concern and since I did not know much of what happened or anything before then anything could have been a possibility.
* * *
I’m in the hills. There is wind all around me, and the trees seem to be active, but not moving. The ground is only grass, no leaves or shrubbery of any kind the trees are tall and seem to be branchless until their tops that shadow the sky from my vision. All I can hear is the wind circling me, getting louder and louder and the trees seem to be moving, it’s hard to tell.
“Get up!” I heard “Athol! Get up you’re going to be late for work!” It was Max, I must have been dreaming again.
“Sorry, Max, I’m up” I called down to him; all I could hear from then was him mumbling about kids and when he was young. I got dressed quickly and ran downstairs.
“Aren’t you going to have a bite to eat, before you go?” asked Max.
“No, sorry I can’t I’ll have something at the bakery.” I replied to him in a hurry, he then lifted his hand up quickly as if he were gesturing to get out of his sight. I didn’t pay much attention to it, he always had done things of that sort, I quickly grabbed my bag and I was off to work. I ran fast that morning calling out “Hi, how are ya’s” to people I knew while I was running by. The bakery was about a mile away from my room at the top of Max’s house. And I had 5 minutes to get there without being late; today would be my third time this week.
When I got there nobody noticed me slip in and put my apron on. The bakery was exceptionally busy that morning; we had to get ready for the town day, which was being celebrated this afternoon. Everybody was in a big hustle about it and wanted to get everything done early so that we had time to take care of the customers still. I went to my area of the table and started preparing to make my lemon squares when I felt a slap on my back. “Late again, Athol!” and then I heard a familiar laugh. It was my friend Seth, who made friends with me about a week or two after I was found.
“Yeah, I had that dream again.” I said back to him. He set up his baking needs next to mine; we shared a table there.
“Another one?” he said
“Yeah I don’t know what to make of it. It’s always so confusing and I wake up right before I might start to understand.” I said back to him.
“Hey, I heard of this guy, he lives in the woods past the lake, he’s kinda weird, but my friend went there on a little hike in the woods…” he would babble on like this for hours if I didn’t cut in.
“Who is this guy, Seth?” I said as I cut in.
“Oh I heard that he can read your dreams. He said that they are often visions of the future or something that has happened in the past…”
“Something in the past?” I cut in again.
“Yeah, you know, like regressed memories or something.” He answered.
“Do you know how to get to his house?” I asked
“No but, the guy I was telling you about, until I was so rudely interrupted does, he makes maps, he lives on the outskirts of town near the old mines.” He said.
“Take me to him when we get off work.” I said
“What about the party?” he whined.
“There’ll be plenty of time for that, later. I want to meet him.” I said back to him.
“Well…”
“No ‘wells’ were going!” One thing I did know about myself is that I was very demanding and I usually got what I wanted out of people.
When work got out I didn’t even allow Seth the time to get changed out of his work clothes. I was so excited that maybe I might have found a clue to who I am that we rushed right from work to go to this man’s house. Who by the way is named Belfare. We had a decent walk ahead of us. The mines were all the way on the other side of town. On the way Seth was telling me about him. “He’s a fat man, very happy, but often times too unaware of things around him.” He said.
“Then I reckon he’s not a very good map maker.” I said as a joke.
Seth laughed. “Not in the least.” We had walked for nearly two hours when we reached his house. It was old and run down and there were no other houses near it. I thought it must have been a miner’s house, because in the back a little ways you could see the hole where the entrance to the mine was. At first I was nervous by the looks of the place. But Seth walked through the yard like he had lived there for years, which put me at ease. Before we even had a chance to knock the door opened and there standing was a round and jolly looking man.
“C’mon in!” he cried, and we rushed to the door and went inside. “Nice seeing you again Seth, but who is this young fella here wit ya?” he asked.
“This is my friend Athol.” He said. “He works in the bakery where I work and makes excellent lemon squares.”
“So you’re the source behind them delicious things!” he said with a laugh. I smiled and nodded as we continued to walk towards the back of the house and into the kitchen. There we sat down and Belfare and Seth discussed things about the celebration tonight.
“Am I going to see you there?” asked Seth.
“No, I’m afraid not, I don’t much like social events” answered Belfare. “But I hope you two have a good time there tonight and meet yourselves some pretty ladies.” He said with an almost lustful smirk on his face. “But what brings your business here, it can’t be to ask about the party tonight?”
“Actually.” Said Seth. “No, I was telling my friend here about how you met that man in the woods who can tell you what your dreams are meaning. See, my friend has been havin peculiar dreams and was wondering about them.”
“Ah, So you need my expert maps, do ya?” he said with a laugh. His face the turned stern as he said “But be warned, you got yourselves a good day’s hike ahead of ya, and if ya aint got a donkey to go with ya, which I reckon you don’t, them hills can be mighty steep with your luggage.” Seth’s smile turned to a frown, and somehow knew that I was going to have him accompany me and that we would have to leave as soon as possible, because I was restless with things of this sort. “But I say, ya don’t leave tonight, rest up a bit and make leave in the morning.” Seth’s smile returned at the fact that he could still go to the party.
We left the house with a ragged piece of paper with lines going in every which direction, a mockery of a map Seth called it, but it would do. We went to the party, and what a party it was! The bakery had given many dishes of the finest pastries and cakes. The butcher, Gren, had cut fine roasts and dishes of splendid meats. There was a live band playing, and torches surrounded the entire common, that would have given it the light of day in the dead of night. There was dancing, and fireworks and games. Altogether a fun evening, but all I could think of was getting to the man in the woods. I didn’t concern myself much with the dancing or games, even though Seth had pushed me eagerly to.
When I had gotten home Max had been up waiting for me.
“Where have you been after work?” he said demandingly. “Though, I’m not your father, you still live under my roof and I have responsibility over you.” I had heard this one before, and I followed the usual routine of bowing my head and saying,
“I’m sorry, I should have checked in with you first, it wont happen again.”
“Oh, no.” he said. “That lines not gonna work this time!” He seemed more upset than usual. “I have to get you up in the morning, I feed you, I give you a place to stay and I look after you out of the goodness of my heart. I don’t even ask you for rent, which I should be, you’re making a decent wage at the bakery. And what do you do with the money? Probably blow it on alcohol and women, I know what it’s like to be a kid.” The more he talked the angrier he seemed to get; as if he had been saving all the things I had done wrong to one point until the final words. “Get out of my house!” I stood there amazed, but still I saw it coming, luckily I had been saving my money and not spending it on alcohol and women, that I am sure Seth was doing at this moment, instead of getting sleep for the hike tomorrow. I thought I should at least put an effort into keeping the only home I know of.
“But…” I said.
“No ‘buts’, OUT!” Max quickly said before I had chance to explain myself. So I went up to my room and gathered what few belongings I had into a backpack and took one last look at the view out of my window and said goodbye. I kept my head down as I walked past Max and he had nothing left to say. That night I found a place to sleep under a tree in the common. Everyone had gone home by the time had gotten there so there was no need for explaining myself which I did not want to do at this time.
The next morning I was woken up at the sound of Seth’s familiar laugh. It wasn’t too deep but not too shrill and it seemed to echo loudly, it was a pleasant laugh that I often enjoyed. “I see you had a rougher night than I had, you drunk!” Seth said laughing. “Now get up, it’s almost noon time, I already told the bakery we were going to be out for the day.” When I had gotten up I told Seth about what had happened the night before, and he offered me a place to sleep at his house when we had gotten back.
“I might not be coming back.” I said to him with my head to the ground. He looked at me shocked.
“Not coming back? What do you mean not coming back? Are you gonna live out there with that hermit for the rest of your life to talk about your dreams?” He said still shocked. Seth had never dreamed of leaving the town of Burkesville, where we lived. It was quiet, and nice like I said before and the people were very friendly. There was no reason for him to leave. He was very comfortable here.
“You don’t understand Seth, my truest friend,” I said, trying to console him a little. “The information the old man has for me might lead me back to finding my life, I need that more than this town.”
“But you have a life in this town now, a new life, you have to come back.” He said still concerned that he would lose his best friend.
“Well, we’ll see what the man has to say, it could be nothing, in which case I would have no where to go but here, don’t worry Seth.” I said it but I didn’t all together mean it. It was true that maybe the man had nothing to say even if we found him in the first place, but I wanted to. I needed it so badly, I needed to find out who I was and I needed to find out where I came from. So we set off on our hike. Seth trudged along glumly. And I walked with my head high, hoping to find an answer, or even a clue would do at this point.
I was looking at the map and I saw that the man in the woods was in the hills that I often overlooked out of my window in Max’s house. I wondered if that is where the dreams keep taking place. I was very excited about the whole thing. I gave the map back to Seth for he was the designated navigator, appointed by Belfare himself.
We were on the main road that went through the city. “We follow this road until the end of the lake then we have to leave it and head for the hills.” Seth said looking at the map. We passed Max’s house and I caught a glimpse of him looking through the curtains and when he caught my eye he forcefully pushed them back covering the window. “Wow, he’s got some anger issues doesn’t he?”
“Just a few” I said with a smile.
“What was it like living with him?” Seth asked
“Well, it was tough at first getting used to him, then I just kind of ignored him a lot of the times, he has a short temper and doesn’t like much out of his routine. He must’ve been pretty upset when the church asked him to take me in.” I explained. “He’s very religious too, so I can see why he didn’t refuse the church’s offer.” Seth just nodded and stared at the map as I told about how I lived. I told him about my window and how I spent a lot of my time looking at the hills where we were headed.
We got to the bakery and decided to stop in and get some food for the trip, for we had none. The bake shop owner, Glen, was more than happy for us to borrow some of his food, as long as we paid him back with work, later in the week. So then we were all stocked up with supplies and ready to start our adventure.
We had gotten to the edge of the lake and stopped and had a break. We ate some food, for we didn’t have anything to eat the entire day, and it was nearing four o’ clock. We saw that the road continued some ways and disappeared over the hills and into lands that neither me nor Seth knew of. “Now would be a good time to think about where we are headed and how we should get there.” Seth said with food in his mouth. And I nodded my head in agreement.
“Let’s have a look at the map.” I said. And Seth pulled the old piece of paper out of his backpack. There we saw at the bottom right was Belfare’s house and what seemed to be a picture of the mines. And then we saw the main road heading Northward and the lake, the road continued off of the paper. And there was a red line that followed the black line, which represented the main road, and then veered off into the woods. The first marking was two large rocks in a clearing in the wood, which according to the map seemed to be 2 miles away.
“Let’s get to there and then we’ll look at the map some more.” He said pointing at the two rocks.
“Good plan.” I said while finishing up what was left of my raisin scone.
We then made way towards the hills. The ground below us was grassy and clear. The breeze was nice against our backs on this Midsummer Day. It seemed like they were merely going for a stroll in a park, for about an hour or so. They made their first step into the woods and it suddenly became cold. The trees overcastted an endless shadow as long as they were in the woods. It was still day and they could hear the birds singing as they went further in. They followed a straight line and not much was said.
Their straight line soon formed a path beneath their feet for them to follow. The ground slowly became more rocky as they went along and their path turned to a slight incline.
“This isn’t so bad.” Seth said to Athol. “Not bad at all, I’d say we’d reach there in no time and still have time to make it back before a new day.” He continued with high hopes.
“I wouldn’t under estimate this, Seth.” I said back to him. “It may be easy now, but we are slowly going up a slope, and who knows what’s up ahead.” Seth then had an awfully thoughtful look on his face and then shook it off and smiled as they walked along.
Soon enough they came to the place with the two rocks in the clearing in the wood. It seemed to them to be about six o’ clock. They sat down and took out their map and began to study it some more.
The red line continued through the two rocks and up what looked like a cliff side and then wound down the other side. “See.” I said to Seth. “It’s beginning to look a lot more difficult now, isn’t it?”
“We’ll be able to pull it off, don’t worry.” He said to me smiling. Then something caught my eye behind of him. It was a black shadow saying back and forth and coming closer and closer behind Seth. Seth caught my eye looking and turned around swiftly then I saw no more.
* * *
I must have been having the dream again. Only this time it was more vivid. I was in the woods with flat ground under me and the wind swirling about me, I could see now that in the wind there were different colors flying in and out of it and the tall trees weren’t moving they seemed to be trying to communicate with me. All the colors flew in and out of the circling wind and then the wind stopped dead as did the colors and there was a sudden up draft and all the colors flew up high and then shot down into me and there was a feeling that is indescribable to words, something entered me but at the same time something had left and I wasn’t the same as before. And then I awoke.
When I woke up I was strapped to a stone bench, and Seth was laying on a similar one right next to me. It was dark, wherever we were and it was hard to see. I tried to whisper for Seth to wake up but as soon as I made a noise I saw club bash me in the head and again I was unconscious.
When I awoke the second time, we were still in the same place only Seth was awake this time, and I dare not speak another word for fear of being hit again. I looked around as best as I could. It looked like we were in a cave with roughly cut red stone walls and ceiling. Down past my feet there was a tunnel, but I couldn’t see far into it, it was too dark. There was one torch in the room that wasn’t lit before, which illuminated the room a little better for observation. I could see Seth looking confused darting his eyes to each corner of the room. There were two dark figures standing by the tunnel. They were holding each a long staff that looked to be carved from wood at the top of the staff it seemed to widen into an oval shape. They had on dark cloaks and it covered their faces. I wouldn’t have been able to tell if they were human or not because it was too dark. It was completely silent in the room, all I could hear was the torch burning and the nervous breathing of my companion, Seth.
Then I heard feet coming from down the tunnel, and I saw Seth look in fright, as I was. Out of the tunnel walked another shrouded figure, and behind him were two more. He lifted back his hood and I saw he was bald, and his skin looked like it were burned, his eyes were dark and emotionless and the color of his skin was very pale. He held in his hand a silvery contraption. It resembled a wine bottle opener, and inside the middle of it looked a very sharp and considerably shiny tube, which led out the top of the contraption. In his other hand, he held a green bottle that was corked at the top. The two shrouded figures behind him unstrapped Seth and held him upright, with his face against the wall. He started to put up a struggle and one of them hit him off the head with is club and he fell limp. Then the un-hooded figure put the device to the back of Seth’s neck, and it clamped down and he pushed and I could see the small tube enter the back of Seth’s neck. He put his mouth to the end of the tube and sucked. I saw a greenish glow through the tube and enter the monster’s mouth. He then spit what he had taken out into the bottle and corked it. They dropped Seth and I saw them approach me. They lifted me up and turned me around, with my face against the wall as they did with Seth. I was paralyzed with fear and didn’t move. I heard one of them behind me grunt and say something in a language I haven’t heard. They clubbed me in the back of the head and then I was out again.
I woke again with a splitting headache. I wasn’t strapped into anything this time, but we were still in the cave somewhere. I looked around and saw that there was an exit, but steel bars blocked the way I thought to myself that I must be in the prison area. I looked around my cell some more and I saw Seth lying there still unconscious. I shook him and tried to wake him up. It wasn’t working. I sat there and thought. I thought what could all of this be, and then I remembered what the priest had told me long ago. ‘In the bible, it is said that the devil can steal the souls of the living, and that this was done by cutting a tiny hole in the back of their neck and sucking it out.’ He must have known something about this and was scared. And maybe that’s why I couldn’t remember anything. They had stolen my soul, my essence of self. And they had just done the same to Seth. Then I wondered if Seth would forget everything as I did. Would he forget who I am, and where we were going? And I wondered what the creatures were going to do with us. The one thing I did know is that I didn’t want to hang around to find out what they would do. I had to think of something and fast, but it seemed impossible to escape. I knew not where I was, or what these things were and I was stuck in a cell with a knocked out companion. It seemed hopeless until a feeling came to me. It felt like something I had felt before but it seemed so distant. I reached for it I reached for it as hard I could. I then had the same feeling I did in the dreams when the colors shot into me.
I heard a smash and a breaking of glass. I looked around and I was in a room with what seemed to be thousands of bottles on shelves. It was a long room and each of the bottles were glowing green. I wondered what had happened and how I got here, and I looked at my hand. It wasn’t a hand. It was a green substance that glowed radiantly. I must have broken through my bottle somehow. I must have shifted my state of consciousness. I then remembered everything about me. My name wasn’t Athol at all. It was Remmy. I remembered where I was from, a city called Frontier. The city was the most technologically advanced and had knowers of magic and they used it to power great machines. Everything seemed to flood into my head at once, if I had a head at all. I looked down and saw the shattered glass of my imprisonment lying on the floor. I remembered then what danger I was in back in the cell and of Seth and everything that happened. I looked around at the room once more and the walls seemed to be made of the same stone. I was one step closer to getting out of this place but I had to hurry up.
I ran towards one end of the room and saw that it ended in stone so I ran towards the other side and saw a door. I went to reach for the handle and my hand went right through it. I thought this a burden and useful at the same time. So I walked through the door and I saw two guards and they looked up and yelled, “A soul is loose!” I could now understand their language. “Fetch the soul keeper quickly! I’ll stay here and watch it.” And one of them ran off down the hall and the other sat there staring at me. I thought it a bad idea to stay around and wait for this “Soul Keeper” so headed down the left hall, the opposite of the one the other guard ran down. The remaining guard put out a yell and came after me yelling, “stop!” and “where do you think you’re going!”
To evade him I disappeared through a wall and ended up in an empty cell much like the one I was in. I thought I must have been getting closer. I went through the bars of that cell and checked all the cells until I found the one I was in. I saw myself sitting there in what seemed to be a trance and then I saw Seth get up and looked very confused. He looked at the me sitting there and then he looked at me and then he had a very frightened look on his face. When I tried to communicate with him it was like I entered his brain and could hear his thoughts. Then I spoke and he heard me. I told him what happened and what was going on and that the guards should be down here soon.
I had to figure something out to try and get my body out as well. So I tried communicating with my body and it was as if I had put my hands inside of my soulless head. The body had no soul and it was open to receive one, unlike Seth who had no soul, but was unaware of it. My body is the puppet and my soul is the master. I still saw out of my spirit form but I could move and control the body like there were strings attached to it. Just then the guards ran down and opened the cell. I had my body get up and evade the attacks of the creatures. I managed to get a hold of one of their clubs and began to use it against them. I had knocked two guards down and I heard more coming down from the passageway. Seth grabbed one of the clubs and stood beside me and waited for the oncoming guards. Four of them came through this time. They came through and stopped at the entrance to the cell, each had a club and their hoods revealed their hideous faces. I noticed their eyes were cold and blank, and then I noticed they each had a green glow behind them. I took a look at my body’s facial expressions; its eyes were cold and blank just like theirs. They were souls without bodies just as I was. That must have been why I could hear them communicating. I quickly had my body drop the club and run back into a corner of the cell. I then took control of one of the creatures I had knocked out earlier and had him pick up the club. They charged after me and Seth but we managed to fight them off. I took control of my body again, and we ran out of the cell. Often times I had Seth stop and watch my body as I went ahead to look for a way to get out of the maze of tunnels that we were trapped in. We stuck mainly to the road that had an incline on it because I had the feeling that we were underground.
We pressed on and sometimes we ran into a few guards but we managed to fight them off. We then found a spiraling staircase that was carved out of stone. We climbed those stairs for what seemed like centuries. And when we got to the top I could see that my body felt exhausted and longed for rest, though I could not feel it directly. Seth was out of energy as well. We had no choice but to keep going. We came upon a large hall that was not fashioned like the rest of the cave. It had marble pillars, and the floor was smooth and purple. The ceiling and walls were of the same purple as well. It was well lit by extravagant chandeliers. In the middle was a large rug and it seemed like we had just stepped into a king’s hall. At the end there was a very large door and light could be seen out of the cracks of it. We ran for the door but as we got closer a familiar face seemed to have formed. It was the creature that had stolen the soul from Seth, The Soul Keeper. We stopped dead in our tracks. The creature communicated with me telepathically.
“Ah, Remmy.” He said. “I never expected you to make it this far. You are a lot stronger than I first imagined, a unique soul you are.”
“Let us out!” I demanded. And he let out a great laugh that even Seth could comprehend.
“Let you out? I don’t think you should be making commands in your current situation.” He said with a smirk on his face. Just then we saw the hall behind us fill with the soulless creatures grunting and swaying back and forth. “I think it’s about time you were back in your bottle, Remmy. You’ve cause enough trouble today.” I glared at him with an anger I have never felt before it was as if I knew him from somewhere. Though I had my soul back (somewhat) it was not connected to my brain so I could not piece together all of my memories. It was then I had the feeling of my dream again. “Go ahead!” He shouted, taunting me. “Give me your best.” I felt the anger explode in pure emotion. The creatures behind me, Seth and even the Soul Keeper were knocked to the floor with the sudden eruption of strength. I then saw my soul changing color from green to red and it began to grow. Streams of my energy shot out in all directions and took control of all the creatures. I had become superior to them and they were no match for trying to fight me off. I could not touch the Soul Keeper though, because, as he was soulless he had not a soul controlling him either. He was the epitome of emptiness. I left Seth untouched so he had his free will. All the creatures at once rose from the ground in unison and charged the door, trampling the soul keeper. The doors flung open and light shone in. I felt my power dwindle and return to green, and that’s was when me and Seth made our move and ran into the woods.
* * *
thanks for readin, ill prolly post the rest of the story as i go along with it...
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"30,000 feet? woah...thats bigger than my house" ~ TJ sleep talkin
AIM: munkyrice
It must have been about two years ago since I could remember anything at all. My first memory was waking in a church in the town I live in now. It’s a nice town and the people are very friendly and helpful. I stay with an older man now his name is Max; I live on the second floor of his house, which is only one room. I have a window that over looks a lake and off in the distance I can see hills with trees that stay green year round. I work in the bakery of this town as hired help, nothing too important, but I have grown a reputation in this town to make excellent lemon squares.
When I have free time I usually find myself sitting in my room and gazing at the hills and wondering. I wonder where I came from, I wonder who I am and I wonder what brought me here. I have tried to do some research about what I am but the town library is small and doesn’t concern itself much with the world outside of the town. The head priest said he found me lying at the foot of the church with a tiny incision in the back of my neck. When I asked him about it he bowed his head like he had bad news and said, “In the bible, it is said that the devil can steal the souls of the living, and that this was done by cutting a tiny hole in the back of their neck and sucking it out.” Though I didn’t take him seriously at first, I still had a concern and since I did not know much of what happened or anything before then anything could have been a possibility.
* * *
I’m in the hills. There is wind all around me, and the trees seem to be active, but not moving. The ground is only grass, no leaves or shrubbery of any kind the trees are tall and seem to be branchless until their tops that shadow the sky from my vision. All I can hear is the wind circling me, getting louder and louder and the trees seem to be moving, it’s hard to tell.
“Get up!” I heard “Athol! Get up you’re going to be late for work!” It was Max, I must have been dreaming again.
“Sorry, Max, I’m up” I called down to him; all I could hear from then was him mumbling about kids and when he was young. I got dressed quickly and ran downstairs.
“Aren’t you going to have a bite to eat, before you go?” asked Max.
“No, sorry I can’t I’ll have something at the bakery.” I replied to him in a hurry, he then lifted his hand up quickly as if he were gesturing to get out of his sight. I didn’t pay much attention to it, he always had done things of that sort, I quickly grabbed my bag and I was off to work. I ran fast that morning calling out “Hi, how are ya’s” to people I knew while I was running by. The bakery was about a mile away from my room at the top of Max’s house. And I had 5 minutes to get there without being late; today would be my third time this week.
When I got there nobody noticed me slip in and put my apron on. The bakery was exceptionally busy that morning; we had to get ready for the town day, which was being celebrated this afternoon. Everybody was in a big hustle about it and wanted to get everything done early so that we had time to take care of the customers still. I went to my area of the table and started preparing to make my lemon squares when I felt a slap on my back. “Late again, Athol!” and then I heard a familiar laugh. It was my friend Seth, who made friends with me about a week or two after I was found.
“Yeah, I had that dream again.” I said back to him. He set up his baking needs next to mine; we shared a table there.
“Another one?” he said
“Yeah I don’t know what to make of it. It’s always so confusing and I wake up right before I might start to understand.” I said back to him.
“Hey, I heard of this guy, he lives in the woods past the lake, he’s kinda weird, but my friend went there on a little hike in the woods…” he would babble on like this for hours if I didn’t cut in.
“Who is this guy, Seth?” I said as I cut in.
“Oh I heard that he can read your dreams. He said that they are often visions of the future or something that has happened in the past…”
“Something in the past?” I cut in again.
“Yeah, you know, like regressed memories or something.” He answered.
“Do you know how to get to his house?” I asked
“No but, the guy I was telling you about, until I was so rudely interrupted does, he makes maps, he lives on the outskirts of town near the old mines.” He said.
“Take me to him when we get off work.” I said
“What about the party?” he whined.
“There’ll be plenty of time for that, later. I want to meet him.” I said back to him.
“Well…”
“No ‘wells’ were going!” One thing I did know about myself is that I was very demanding and I usually got what I wanted out of people.
When work got out I didn’t even allow Seth the time to get changed out of his work clothes. I was so excited that maybe I might have found a clue to who I am that we rushed right from work to go to this man’s house. Who by the way is named Belfare. We had a decent walk ahead of us. The mines were all the way on the other side of town. On the way Seth was telling me about him. “He’s a fat man, very happy, but often times too unaware of things around him.” He said.
“Then I reckon he’s not a very good map maker.” I said as a joke.
Seth laughed. “Not in the least.” We had walked for nearly two hours when we reached his house. It was old and run down and there were no other houses near it. I thought it must have been a miner’s house, because in the back a little ways you could see the hole where the entrance to the mine was. At first I was nervous by the looks of the place. But Seth walked through the yard like he had lived there for years, which put me at ease. Before we even had a chance to knock the door opened and there standing was a round and jolly looking man.
“C’mon in!” he cried, and we rushed to the door and went inside. “Nice seeing you again Seth, but who is this young fella here wit ya?” he asked.
“This is my friend Athol.” He said. “He works in the bakery where I work and makes excellent lemon squares.”
“So you’re the source behind them delicious things!” he said with a laugh. I smiled and nodded as we continued to walk towards the back of the house and into the kitchen. There we sat down and Belfare and Seth discussed things about the celebration tonight.
“Am I going to see you there?” asked Seth.
“No, I’m afraid not, I don’t much like social events” answered Belfare. “But I hope you two have a good time there tonight and meet yourselves some pretty ladies.” He said with an almost lustful smirk on his face. “But what brings your business here, it can’t be to ask about the party tonight?”
“Actually.” Said Seth. “No, I was telling my friend here about how you met that man in the woods who can tell you what your dreams are meaning. See, my friend has been havin peculiar dreams and was wondering about them.”
“Ah, So you need my expert maps, do ya?” he said with a laugh. His face the turned stern as he said “But be warned, you got yourselves a good day’s hike ahead of ya, and if ya aint got a donkey to go with ya, which I reckon you don’t, them hills can be mighty steep with your luggage.” Seth’s smile turned to a frown, and somehow knew that I was going to have him accompany me and that we would have to leave as soon as possible, because I was restless with things of this sort. “But I say, ya don’t leave tonight, rest up a bit and make leave in the morning.” Seth’s smile returned at the fact that he could still go to the party.
We left the house with a ragged piece of paper with lines going in every which direction, a mockery of a map Seth called it, but it would do. We went to the party, and what a party it was! The bakery had given many dishes of the finest pastries and cakes. The butcher, Gren, had cut fine roasts and dishes of splendid meats. There was a live band playing, and torches surrounded the entire common, that would have given it the light of day in the dead of night. There was dancing, and fireworks and games. Altogether a fun evening, but all I could think of was getting to the man in the woods. I didn’t concern myself much with the dancing or games, even though Seth had pushed me eagerly to.
When I had gotten home Max had been up waiting for me.
“Where have you been after work?” he said demandingly. “Though, I’m not your father, you still live under my roof and I have responsibility over you.” I had heard this one before, and I followed the usual routine of bowing my head and saying,
“I’m sorry, I should have checked in with you first, it wont happen again.”
“Oh, no.” he said. “That lines not gonna work this time!” He seemed more upset than usual. “I have to get you up in the morning, I feed you, I give you a place to stay and I look after you out of the goodness of my heart. I don’t even ask you for rent, which I should be, you’re making a decent wage at the bakery. And what do you do with the money? Probably blow it on alcohol and women, I know what it’s like to be a kid.” The more he talked the angrier he seemed to get; as if he had been saving all the things I had done wrong to one point until the final words. “Get out of my house!” I stood there amazed, but still I saw it coming, luckily I had been saving my money and not spending it on alcohol and women, that I am sure Seth was doing at this moment, instead of getting sleep for the hike tomorrow. I thought I should at least put an effort into keeping the only home I know of.
“But…” I said.
“No ‘buts’, OUT!” Max quickly said before I had chance to explain myself. So I went up to my room and gathered what few belongings I had into a backpack and took one last look at the view out of my window and said goodbye. I kept my head down as I walked past Max and he had nothing left to say. That night I found a place to sleep under a tree in the common. Everyone had gone home by the time had gotten there so there was no need for explaining myself which I did not want to do at this time.
The next morning I was woken up at the sound of Seth’s familiar laugh. It wasn’t too deep but not too shrill and it seemed to echo loudly, it was a pleasant laugh that I often enjoyed. “I see you had a rougher night than I had, you drunk!” Seth said laughing. “Now get up, it’s almost noon time, I already told the bakery we were going to be out for the day.” When I had gotten up I told Seth about what had happened the night before, and he offered me a place to sleep at his house when we had gotten back.
“I might not be coming back.” I said to him with my head to the ground. He looked at me shocked.
“Not coming back? What do you mean not coming back? Are you gonna live out there with that hermit for the rest of your life to talk about your dreams?” He said still shocked. Seth had never dreamed of leaving the town of Burkesville, where we lived. It was quiet, and nice like I said before and the people were very friendly. There was no reason for him to leave. He was very comfortable here.
“You don’t understand Seth, my truest friend,” I said, trying to console him a little. “The information the old man has for me might lead me back to finding my life, I need that more than this town.”
“But you have a life in this town now, a new life, you have to come back.” He said still concerned that he would lose his best friend.
“Well, we’ll see what the man has to say, it could be nothing, in which case I would have no where to go but here, don’t worry Seth.” I said it but I didn’t all together mean it. It was true that maybe the man had nothing to say even if we found him in the first place, but I wanted to. I needed it so badly, I needed to find out who I was and I needed to find out where I came from. So we set off on our hike. Seth trudged along glumly. And I walked with my head high, hoping to find an answer, or even a clue would do at this point.
I was looking at the map and I saw that the man in the woods was in the hills that I often overlooked out of my window in Max’s house. I wondered if that is where the dreams keep taking place. I was very excited about the whole thing. I gave the map back to Seth for he was the designated navigator, appointed by Belfare himself.
We were on the main road that went through the city. “We follow this road until the end of the lake then we have to leave it and head for the hills.” Seth said looking at the map. We passed Max’s house and I caught a glimpse of him looking through the curtains and when he caught my eye he forcefully pushed them back covering the window. “Wow, he’s got some anger issues doesn’t he?”
“Just a few” I said with a smile.
“What was it like living with him?” Seth asked
“Well, it was tough at first getting used to him, then I just kind of ignored him a lot of the times, he has a short temper and doesn’t like much out of his routine. He must’ve been pretty upset when the church asked him to take me in.” I explained. “He’s very religious too, so I can see why he didn’t refuse the church’s offer.” Seth just nodded and stared at the map as I told about how I lived. I told him about my window and how I spent a lot of my time looking at the hills where we were headed.
We got to the bakery and decided to stop in and get some food for the trip, for we had none. The bake shop owner, Glen, was more than happy for us to borrow some of his food, as long as we paid him back with work, later in the week. So then we were all stocked up with supplies and ready to start our adventure.
We had gotten to the edge of the lake and stopped and had a break. We ate some food, for we didn’t have anything to eat the entire day, and it was nearing four o’ clock. We saw that the road continued some ways and disappeared over the hills and into lands that neither me nor Seth knew of. “Now would be a good time to think about where we are headed and how we should get there.” Seth said with food in his mouth. And I nodded my head in agreement.
“Let’s have a look at the map.” I said. And Seth pulled the old piece of paper out of his backpack. There we saw at the bottom right was Belfare’s house and what seemed to be a picture of the mines. And then we saw the main road heading Northward and the lake, the road continued off of the paper. And there was a red line that followed the black line, which represented the main road, and then veered off into the woods. The first marking was two large rocks in a clearing in the wood, which according to the map seemed to be 2 miles away.
“Let’s get to there and then we’ll look at the map some more.” He said pointing at the two rocks.
“Good plan.” I said while finishing up what was left of my raisin scone.
We then made way towards the hills. The ground below us was grassy and clear. The breeze was nice against our backs on this Midsummer Day. It seemed like they were merely going for a stroll in a park, for about an hour or so. They made their first step into the woods and it suddenly became cold. The trees overcastted an endless shadow as long as they were in the woods. It was still day and they could hear the birds singing as they went further in. They followed a straight line and not much was said.
Their straight line soon formed a path beneath their feet for them to follow. The ground slowly became more rocky as they went along and their path turned to a slight incline.
“This isn’t so bad.” Seth said to Athol. “Not bad at all, I’d say we’d reach there in no time and still have time to make it back before a new day.” He continued with high hopes.
“I wouldn’t under estimate this, Seth.” I said back to him. “It may be easy now, but we are slowly going up a slope, and who knows what’s up ahead.” Seth then had an awfully thoughtful look on his face and then shook it off and smiled as they walked along.
Soon enough they came to the place with the two rocks in the clearing in the wood. It seemed to them to be about six o’ clock. They sat down and took out their map and began to study it some more.
The red line continued through the two rocks and up what looked like a cliff side and then wound down the other side. “See.” I said to Seth. “It’s beginning to look a lot more difficult now, isn’t it?”
“We’ll be able to pull it off, don’t worry.” He said to me smiling. Then something caught my eye behind of him. It was a black shadow saying back and forth and coming closer and closer behind Seth. Seth caught my eye looking and turned around swiftly then I saw no more.
* * *
I must have been having the dream again. Only this time it was more vivid. I was in the woods with flat ground under me and the wind swirling about me, I could see now that in the wind there were different colors flying in and out of it and the tall trees weren’t moving they seemed to be trying to communicate with me. All the colors flew in and out of the circling wind and then the wind stopped dead as did the colors and there was a sudden up draft and all the colors flew up high and then shot down into me and there was a feeling that is indescribable to words, something entered me but at the same time something had left and I wasn’t the same as before. And then I awoke.
When I woke up I was strapped to a stone bench, and Seth was laying on a similar one right next to me. It was dark, wherever we were and it was hard to see. I tried to whisper for Seth to wake up but as soon as I made a noise I saw club bash me in the head and again I was unconscious.
When I awoke the second time, we were still in the same place only Seth was awake this time, and I dare not speak another word for fear of being hit again. I looked around as best as I could. It looked like we were in a cave with roughly cut red stone walls and ceiling. Down past my feet there was a tunnel, but I couldn’t see far into it, it was too dark. There was one torch in the room that wasn’t lit before, which illuminated the room a little better for observation. I could see Seth looking confused darting his eyes to each corner of the room. There were two dark figures standing by the tunnel. They were holding each a long staff that looked to be carved from wood at the top of the staff it seemed to widen into an oval shape. They had on dark cloaks and it covered their faces. I wouldn’t have been able to tell if they were human or not because it was too dark. It was completely silent in the room, all I could hear was the torch burning and the nervous breathing of my companion, Seth.
Then I heard feet coming from down the tunnel, and I saw Seth look in fright, as I was. Out of the tunnel walked another shrouded figure, and behind him were two more. He lifted back his hood and I saw he was bald, and his skin looked like it were burned, his eyes were dark and emotionless and the color of his skin was very pale. He held in his hand a silvery contraption. It resembled a wine bottle opener, and inside the middle of it looked a very sharp and considerably shiny tube, which led out the top of the contraption. In his other hand, he held a green bottle that was corked at the top. The two shrouded figures behind him unstrapped Seth and held him upright, with his face against the wall. He started to put up a struggle and one of them hit him off the head with is club and he fell limp. Then the un-hooded figure put the device to the back of Seth’s neck, and it clamped down and he pushed and I could see the small tube enter the back of Seth’s neck. He put his mouth to the end of the tube and sucked. I saw a greenish glow through the tube and enter the monster’s mouth. He then spit what he had taken out into the bottle and corked it. They dropped Seth and I saw them approach me. They lifted me up and turned me around, with my face against the wall as they did with Seth. I was paralyzed with fear and didn’t move. I heard one of them behind me grunt and say something in a language I haven’t heard. They clubbed me in the back of the head and then I was out again.
I woke again with a splitting headache. I wasn’t strapped into anything this time, but we were still in the cave somewhere. I looked around and saw that there was an exit, but steel bars blocked the way I thought to myself that I must be in the prison area. I looked around my cell some more and I saw Seth lying there still unconscious. I shook him and tried to wake him up. It wasn’t working. I sat there and thought. I thought what could all of this be, and then I remembered what the priest had told me long ago. ‘In the bible, it is said that the devil can steal the souls of the living, and that this was done by cutting a tiny hole in the back of their neck and sucking it out.’ He must have known something about this and was scared. And maybe that’s why I couldn’t remember anything. They had stolen my soul, my essence of self. And they had just done the same to Seth. Then I wondered if Seth would forget everything as I did. Would he forget who I am, and where we were going? And I wondered what the creatures were going to do with us. The one thing I did know is that I didn’t want to hang around to find out what they would do. I had to think of something and fast, but it seemed impossible to escape. I knew not where I was, or what these things were and I was stuck in a cell with a knocked out companion. It seemed hopeless until a feeling came to me. It felt like something I had felt before but it seemed so distant. I reached for it I reached for it as hard I could. I then had the same feeling I did in the dreams when the colors shot into me.
I heard a smash and a breaking of glass. I looked around and I was in a room with what seemed to be thousands of bottles on shelves. It was a long room and each of the bottles were glowing green. I wondered what had happened and how I got here, and I looked at my hand. It wasn’t a hand. It was a green substance that glowed radiantly. I must have broken through my bottle somehow. I must have shifted my state of consciousness. I then remembered everything about me. My name wasn’t Athol at all. It was Remmy. I remembered where I was from, a city called Frontier. The city was the most technologically advanced and had knowers of magic and they used it to power great machines. Everything seemed to flood into my head at once, if I had a head at all. I looked down and saw the shattered glass of my imprisonment lying on the floor. I remembered then what danger I was in back in the cell and of Seth and everything that happened. I looked around at the room once more and the walls seemed to be made of the same stone. I was one step closer to getting out of this place but I had to hurry up.
I ran towards one end of the room and saw that it ended in stone so I ran towards the other side and saw a door. I went to reach for the handle and my hand went right through it. I thought this a burden and useful at the same time. So I walked through the door and I saw two guards and they looked up and yelled, “A soul is loose!” I could now understand their language. “Fetch the soul keeper quickly! I’ll stay here and watch it.” And one of them ran off down the hall and the other sat there staring at me. I thought it a bad idea to stay around and wait for this “Soul Keeper” so headed down the left hall, the opposite of the one the other guard ran down. The remaining guard put out a yell and came after me yelling, “stop!” and “where do you think you’re going!”
To evade him I disappeared through a wall and ended up in an empty cell much like the one I was in. I thought I must have been getting closer. I went through the bars of that cell and checked all the cells until I found the one I was in. I saw myself sitting there in what seemed to be a trance and then I saw Seth get up and looked very confused. He looked at the me sitting there and then he looked at me and then he had a very frightened look on his face. When I tried to communicate with him it was like I entered his brain and could hear his thoughts. Then I spoke and he heard me. I told him what happened and what was going on and that the guards should be down here soon.
I had to figure something out to try and get my body out as well. So I tried communicating with my body and it was as if I had put my hands inside of my soulless head. The body had no soul and it was open to receive one, unlike Seth who had no soul, but was unaware of it. My body is the puppet and my soul is the master. I still saw out of my spirit form but I could move and control the body like there were strings attached to it. Just then the guards ran down and opened the cell. I had my body get up and evade the attacks of the creatures. I managed to get a hold of one of their clubs and began to use it against them. I had knocked two guards down and I heard more coming down from the passageway. Seth grabbed one of the clubs and stood beside me and waited for the oncoming guards. Four of them came through this time. They came through and stopped at the entrance to the cell, each had a club and their hoods revealed their hideous faces. I noticed their eyes were cold and blank, and then I noticed they each had a green glow behind them. I took a look at my body’s facial expressions; its eyes were cold and blank just like theirs. They were souls without bodies just as I was. That must have been why I could hear them communicating. I quickly had my body drop the club and run back into a corner of the cell. I then took control of one of the creatures I had knocked out earlier and had him pick up the club. They charged after me and Seth but we managed to fight them off. I took control of my body again, and we ran out of the cell. Often times I had Seth stop and watch my body as I went ahead to look for a way to get out of the maze of tunnels that we were trapped in. We stuck mainly to the road that had an incline on it because I had the feeling that we were underground.
We pressed on and sometimes we ran into a few guards but we managed to fight them off. We then found a spiraling staircase that was carved out of stone. We climbed those stairs for what seemed like centuries. And when we got to the top I could see that my body felt exhausted and longed for rest, though I could not feel it directly. Seth was out of energy as well. We had no choice but to keep going. We came upon a large hall that was not fashioned like the rest of the cave. It had marble pillars, and the floor was smooth and purple. The ceiling and walls were of the same purple as well. It was well lit by extravagant chandeliers. In the middle was a large rug and it seemed like we had just stepped into a king’s hall. At the end there was a very large door and light could be seen out of the cracks of it. We ran for the door but as we got closer a familiar face seemed to have formed. It was the creature that had stolen the soul from Seth, The Soul Keeper. We stopped dead in our tracks. The creature communicated with me telepathically.
“Ah, Remmy.” He said. “I never expected you to make it this far. You are a lot stronger than I first imagined, a unique soul you are.”
“Let us out!” I demanded. And he let out a great laugh that even Seth could comprehend.
“Let you out? I don’t think you should be making commands in your current situation.” He said with a smirk on his face. Just then we saw the hall behind us fill with the soulless creatures grunting and swaying back and forth. “I think it’s about time you were back in your bottle, Remmy. You’ve cause enough trouble today.” I glared at him with an anger I have never felt before it was as if I knew him from somewhere. Though I had my soul back (somewhat) it was not connected to my brain so I could not piece together all of my memories. It was then I had the feeling of my dream again. “Go ahead!” He shouted, taunting me. “Give me your best.” I felt the anger explode in pure emotion. The creatures behind me, Seth and even the Soul Keeper were knocked to the floor with the sudden eruption of strength. I then saw my soul changing color from green to red and it began to grow. Streams of my energy shot out in all directions and took control of all the creatures. I had become superior to them and they were no match for trying to fight me off. I could not touch the Soul Keeper though, because, as he was soulless he had not a soul controlling him either. He was the epitome of emptiness. I left Seth untouched so he had his free will. All the creatures at once rose from the ground in unison and charged the door, trampling the soul keeper. The doors flung open and light shone in. I felt my power dwindle and return to green, and that’s was when me and Seth made our move and ran into the woods.
* * *
thanks for readin, ill prolly post the rest of the story as i go along with it...
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"30,000 feet? woah...thats bigger than my house" ~ TJ sleep talkin
AIM: munkyrice
